The way we watch television has evolved as technology has transformed our desires and expectations. New content delivery systems made possible by Internet connectivity have exponentially increased the control we have over what we see and how and when we see it. As the Web integration progresses with Boxee, Google TV, Yahoo! Connected TV, Xbox360, Roku, and others, the lines between our televisions and computers are becoming increasingly blurred.
The concept of televisions with Internet connectivity is by no means new. In the mid-1990s, WebTV offered a set-top box with 2 MB of RAM and a 33.6 kb/s modem and Netscape Navigator/Internet Explorer browser compatibility. The service has advanced considerable and is now operating as MSN TV. Though it is no longer being sold by Microsoft, the company still supports the subscription service.
Most recently, Google released what many consider to be the most advanced and capable “connected television” device, Google TV. This product allows users to search for television content from many sources, which Google aggregates and displays on your television screen. With this feature, Google TV supplies and displays content not available through your cable subscription with content from Netflix, Amazon VOD, YouTube, and other websites, consolidating each of these individual platforms into a central experience accessible through Google-powered search. Currently, Google TV is the only device with full internet capability. Several devices from SONY and Logitech already feature Google TV, and more will be rolled out in 2011.
One of the most important elements of the connected TV movement is the availability of apps and widgets. Apps, the central value leading to the success of the Apple iPhone, are becoming available on select new televisions. Devices like the VIZIO XVT473SV leading the revolution are enabled by Wi-Fi technology, allowing users to connect to services including Facebook, Twitter, Rhapsody, Netflix, Pandora, and others through apps and widgets on their television. This integration of services delivers the “all-in-one” value by combining televisions and computers in a manner similar to the way smartphones integrated telephones and computers to phenomenal success.
With successful mobile operators like Google (Android) and Apple (iOS) staking their claim in living rooms, the growing circle of integration is likely to become more seamless as technologies advance and adoption expands. We are continually moving forward in an era of interconnectivity and integration, and Internet/app-enabled devices will drastically alter the traditional definition of televisions and their capabilities.
Google Dives Head First into Display Advertising
Google shares soar as the company reports impressive 23% YoY growth after the closing bell. CEO Eric Schmidt attributes growth to strength of Google’s core businesses and “significant momentum” in its newer display and mobile advertising businesses. For the full report from Google, click here.
In a move intended to diversify their revenue stream, Silicon Valley giant Google launched a sprawling multimedia campaign named “Watch This Space”, announcing their increased efforts to grow their business in the display advertising sector.
There was a time when Google could do no wrong, and investors witnessed the search engine’s share price rocket into the stratosphere, reaching its peak at $741.79 in November 2007. Google shares are down approximately 16% YTD ($525.62) and many indicate this is the result of growing concern over the company’s dependence on search. As the New York Times highlighted in September, over 90% of Google’s revenues come from text ads.
The new campaign includes a massive interactive billboard in Manhattan and seemingly omnipresent display ads across the web displaying bold messages: “This Space Can Be Smarter” and “Display ads are big. They’re gonna be huge.”
Earlier this year, Facebook surpassed long-time industry leader Yahoo! to become the leading publisher of display ads in the United States with 16.2% of the market. Yahoo! sits in second with 12.1%, and Microsoft has a 5.5% share to hold third place. (It is critical to note that comScore does not include ads from Yahoo! and Microsoft’s partner networks, which would undoubtedly vault Yahoo! beyond Facebook as number one, and advertisers pay significantly less to display ads on Facebook than Yahoo and Microsoft.)
Notice the glaring omission? Google is nowhere to be found. Back in 2007, when Yahoo! acquired Right Media for a total of $725 million, the display ad market was growing but the future of success was not set in stone. The fear was that with a wealth of new websites competing for visitors and advertisers, the average price of display ads would decrease. As it turned out, the fear was not to be realized, as ad exchange services like Right Media and Google’s DoubleClick increased the average price of ads as a result of the tracking information and user behavior metrics they were able to provide.
With display advertising now solidified as a powerful revenue source, growing faster than the overall ad market, Google is at a key competitive disadvantage by not having a meaningful presence in the market. These new efforts indicate Google’s recognition that they can capitalize on a rapidly growing advertising sector by leveraging their incredibly talented human resources, expansive networks, and powerful financial position. Its search dominance not in doubt, Google needs a blockbuster new business unit to reassure investors that they aren’t a one-trick pony.
Will Google become a major player in the display advertising sector? Share your thoughts with a comment below.
Is Advertising Content?
Like many of world’s Internet users, when I browse my favorite websites my eyes tend to scan past the navigational elements of the page, take a quick glance at any advertisements, and move directly to the content of the page. This week, Dave Morgan and Joe Marchese of OnlineSPIN took to the headlines to debate a critical question: “Is advertising content?” Before presenting my argument, here are the key points outlined by each side.
Advertising Is NOT Content:
Advertising IS Content:
Consumers value advertising content as much as media/editorial content
In a recession consumers prefer free services, advertising provides that
Consumers don’t hate all ads, they hate being bombarded by irrelevant ones
Each position has its own validity, and neither can be universally applied to every user and every platform. However, after careful analysis of the facts, it is evident that if done properly, advertising is content, and plays a critical role in the success of any website or business.
When an advertiser develops and releases a powerful, relevant, meaningful ad that adds value to the consumer experience by eliciting strong feelings and inspiring interest in users, the advertisement becomes a portal for a potential customer/subscriber/user to learn something new, experience something different, or discover a product or service that enriches their lives. However, when consumers are overexposed, constantly flooded by too widely-targeted ads, their effectiveness is dramatically reduced, and the value added the the viewer becomes less and less.
For every one hour of television, there is between 14-18 minutes of advertising. So when I watch Fringe live on Thursday nights, between 23-30% of my time is spent viewing advertisements as I wait to return to the show. When I’m watching live I am offered very little choice as to whether I see the advertisements, and more often than not, the ads are more of a necessary transition than valuable content. To combat this, advertisers utilize integrated product placement to more seamlessly mesh the content of the program with the content of the ad. As the original debaters noted, television commercials can be content in the proper context. Super Bowl advertisements, with a hefty price tag of $3 million every 30 seconds, are a critical element of the viewing experience and undoubtedly provide additional value to the viewers (some of whom believe the football game is the “commercial break” until the next set of ads).
Online, the dynamics of advertising as content change as choice, customization, and interaction become increasingly available to users. Display advertisements from industry heavyweights like Yahoo!, Facebook, and Microsoft have revolutionized the way users view and feel about the advertisements they see. By involving users, advertisers create an interactive, participative environment in which ads become a source of entertainment, and have the potential to overtake the page media to become the primary content on a website.
I visited the Yahoo! Sports Golf page today, checking in on the commentary about the PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs, and encountered an ad that I spent more than six (6) minutes interacting with. The American Express video ad featured several levels, allowing me to select a topic, and control a video featuring David Toms, a prominent PGA Tour player. I viewed three short instructional segments, and absorbed tips that I can use next time I am out on the course. When I had completed my interaction with the advertisement, I continued down the page to read the rest of the article.
The ad did not get in the way, it did not distract from the original content, and it did not detract from my experience. In fact, it did the exact opposite. I wanted to interact with the ad, and it became a critically important and positive part of my experience on the website. Relevant, engaging, dynamic, and complex advertisements can become content as elemental as the site media itself. There is no doubt that if done properly (adding true value to the consumer/user experience through engagement, choice, and interaction), advertising is content that can be as important a definition of the user experience as the core page media.
3 Ways to Guarantee You Will Underperform In Your Career
Employee underperformance wreaks havoc on company profits and devastates job satisfaction. It’s a destructive phenomenon that is largely unavoidable. While LCB prefers to provide actionable “DO” lists, it is important to outline the preventable “DON’T” behaviors that some individuals may not be able to identify in themselves.
You’ve seen it before. A colleague of yours is intelligent, creative, and capable; perhaps more so than his peers. Yet, in spite of his potential, he is stuck in a mid-level position and is dissatisfied with his job and career. So often, this state of career limbo carries on for years. Before he knows it, he’s looking at retirement with very few accomplishments of any significance and a laundry list of unattained and unrealized goals.This scenario is all too common, and can lead to an infectious negative attitude that spreads throughout the workplace.
Let’s explore three distinct, dangerous behaviors and attitudes that will result in underperformance, dissatisfaction, and thus, decreased organization performance.
1) Refuse Input and Advice from Peers
Regardless of your intellect and prestige of your degree on the wall, you don’t know everything. If you believe that accepting assistance from your colleagues, employees, and bosses is a sign of weakness and will show that you don’t belong in your position, you are making a very costly mistake. Your peers can provide a wealth of information from a lifetime of experiences, and rejecting this advice and input could deprive you of important information that you simply weren’t aware of. To top it off, you will come off as rude, insecure, and not a team player. You recognize and note the negative behavior of your peers, and your colleagues are no different. Don’t be surprised if this comes up during performance reviews for a promotion.
2) Assume Maintaining the Accepted Status Quo Will Yield Deserved Promotions
A significant portion of the workforce shares the mistaken belief that simply showing up to work and fulfilling your stated duties will earn you promotions and pay raises. While certain industries have incentive systems that reward seniority, a greater number of companies and industries are moving towards performance-based systems that reward innovation, creativity, and appropriate risk-taking. If you fail to adhere to the changing systems and expectations, you run the risk of being lapped by your colleagues and passed over for promotions by your superiors. LCB touched on this in an earlier post.
3) Reject Advice from Proven and Successful Leaders
Visionaries and successful leaders like Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, and Tony Robbins have seen it, lived it, and now look to share their success with you. Their goal is to empower you to be the greatest version of you that’s possible, and to allow you to take the steps in your life that can transform you into a successful, happy, and accomplished individual. Self-help “gurus” are a dime-a-dozen and often offer nothing more than what they read and heard from others. But true visionaries like those mentioned above can catapult you to the next stage of life and your career, allowing you to realize your true potential. If you reject their educated, experienced, and proven advice as common self-help trash, you are abandoning an opportunity to develop your professional and personal skills. Set your ego aside and learn from those who have proven they have the knowledge and abilities to succeed.
Too often individuals navigate their careers and allow professional goals and personal dreams to fall by the wayside as they fail to meet the expectations they set for themselves. Demotivation, a critical organizational behavior concept, has devastating effects on employee productivity and thus, company performance. This trap is often self-inflicted, and you can avoid falling into the cycle by stopping yourself when you notice you may be exhibiting the three aforementioned behaviors and attitudes.
What behaviors and attitudes have you seen derail the careers of your colleagues and peers? Did they correct their course? Tell your story with a comment below!
The concept of televisions with Internet connectivity is by no means new. In the mid-1990s, WebTV offered a set-top box with 2 MB of RAM and a 33.6 kb/s modem and Netscape Navigator/Internet Explorer browser compatibility. The service has advanced considerable and is now operating as MSN TV. Though it is no longer being sold by Microsoft, the company still supports the subscription service.
Most recently, Google released what many consider to be the most advanced and capable “connected television” device, Google TV. This product allows users to search for television content from many sources, which Google aggregates and displays on your television screen. With this feature, Google TV supplies and displays content not available through your cable subscription with content from Netflix, Amazon VOD, YouTube, and other websites, consolidating each of these individual platforms into a central experience accessible through Google-powered search. Currently, Google TV is the only device with full internet capability. Several devices from SONY and Logitech already feature Google TV, and more will be rolled out in 2011.
One of the most important elements of the connected TV movement is the availability of apps and widgets. Apps, the central value leading to the success of the Apple iPhone, are becoming available on select new televisions. Devices like the VIZIO XVT473SV leading the revolution are enabled by Wi-Fi technology, allowing users to connect to services including Facebook, Twitter, Rhapsody, Netflix, Pandora, and others through apps and widgets on their television. This integration of services delivers the “all-in-one” value by combining televisions and computers in a manner similar to the way smartphones integrated telephones and computers to phenomenal success.
With successful mobile operators like Google (Android) and Apple (iOS) staking their claim in living rooms, the growing circle of integration is likely to become more seamless as technologies advance and adoption expands. We are continually moving forward in an era of interconnectivity and integration, and Internet/app-enabled devices will drastically alter the traditional definition of televisions and their capabilities.
Google Dives Head First into Display Advertising
Google shares soar as the company reports impressive 23% YoY growth after the closing bell. CEO Eric Schmidt attributes growth to strength of Google’s core businesses and “significant momentum” in its newer display and mobile advertising businesses. For the full report from Google, click here.
In a move intended to diversify their revenue stream, Silicon Valley giant Google launched a sprawling multimedia campaign named “Watch This Space”, announcing their increased efforts to grow their business in the display advertising sector.
There was a time when Google could do no wrong, and investors witnessed the search engine’s share price rocket into the stratosphere, reaching its peak at $741.79 in November 2007. Google shares are down approximately 16% YTD ($525.62) and many indicate this is the result of growing concern over the company’s dependence on search. As the New York Times highlighted in September, over 90% of Google’s revenues come from text ads.
The new campaign includes a massive interactive billboard in Manhattan and seemingly omnipresent display ads across the web displaying bold messages: “This Space Can Be Smarter” and “Display ads are big. They’re gonna be huge.”
Earlier this year, Facebook surpassed long-time industry leader Yahoo! to become the leading publisher of display ads in the United States with 16.2% of the market. Yahoo! sits in second with 12.1%, and Microsoft has a 5.5% share to hold third place. (It is critical to note that comScore does not include ads from Yahoo! and Microsoft’s partner networks, which would undoubtedly vault Yahoo! beyond Facebook as number one, and advertisers pay significantly less to display ads on Facebook than Yahoo and Microsoft.)
Notice the glaring omission? Google is nowhere to be found. Back in 2007, when Yahoo! acquired Right Media for a total of $725 million, the display ad market was growing but the future of success was not set in stone. The fear was that with a wealth of new websites competing for visitors and advertisers, the average price of display ads would decrease. As it turned out, the fear was not to be realized, as ad exchange services like Right Media and Google’s DoubleClick increased the average price of ads as a result of the tracking information and user behavior metrics they were able to provide.
With display advertising now solidified as a powerful revenue source, growing faster than the overall ad market, Google is at a key competitive disadvantage by not having a meaningful presence in the market. These new efforts indicate Google’s recognition that they can capitalize on a rapidly growing advertising sector by leveraging their incredibly talented human resources, expansive networks, and powerful financial position. Its search dominance not in doubt, Google needs a blockbuster new business unit to reassure investors that they aren’t a one-trick pony.
Will Google become a major player in the display advertising sector? Share your thoughts with a comment below.
Is Advertising Content?
Like many of world’s Internet users, when I browse my favorite websites my eyes tend to scan past the navigational elements of the page, take a quick glance at any advertisements, and move directly to the content of the page. This week, Dave Morgan and Joe Marchese of OnlineSPIN took to the headlines to debate a critical question: “Is advertising content?” Before presenting my argument, here are the key points outlined by each side.
Advertising Is NOT Content:
- Consumers would rather experience content without advertising
- Consumers are even willing to pay to remove advertising
- Regardless of the quality of the advertising, users don’t want to be interrupted
Advertising IS Content:
Consumers value advertising content as much as media/editorial content
In a recession consumers prefer free services, advertising provides that
Consumers don’t hate all ads, they hate being bombarded by irrelevant ones
Each position has its own validity, and neither can be universally applied to every user and every platform. However, after careful analysis of the facts, it is evident that if done properly, advertising is content, and plays a critical role in the success of any website or business.
When an advertiser develops and releases a powerful, relevant, meaningful ad that adds value to the consumer experience by eliciting strong feelings and inspiring interest in users, the advertisement becomes a portal for a potential customer/subscriber/user to learn something new, experience something different, or discover a product or service that enriches their lives. However, when consumers are overexposed, constantly flooded by too widely-targeted ads, their effectiveness is dramatically reduced, and the value added the the viewer becomes less and less.
For every one hour of television, there is between 14-18 minutes of advertising. So when I watch Fringe live on Thursday nights, between 23-30% of my time is spent viewing advertisements as I wait to return to the show. When I’m watching live I am offered very little choice as to whether I see the advertisements, and more often than not, the ads are more of a necessary transition than valuable content. To combat this, advertisers utilize integrated product placement to more seamlessly mesh the content of the program with the content of the ad. As the original debaters noted, television commercials can be content in the proper context. Super Bowl advertisements, with a hefty price tag of $3 million every 30 seconds, are a critical element of the viewing experience and undoubtedly provide additional value to the viewers (some of whom believe the football game is the “commercial break” until the next set of ads).
Online, the dynamics of advertising as content change as choice, customization, and interaction become increasingly available to users. Display advertisements from industry heavyweights like Yahoo!, Facebook, and Microsoft have revolutionized the way users view and feel about the advertisements they see. By involving users, advertisers create an interactive, participative environment in which ads become a source of entertainment, and have the potential to overtake the page media to become the primary content on a website.
I visited the Yahoo! Sports Golf page today, checking in on the commentary about the PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs, and encountered an ad that I spent more than six (6) minutes interacting with. The American Express video ad featured several levels, allowing me to select a topic, and control a video featuring David Toms, a prominent PGA Tour player. I viewed three short instructional segments, and absorbed tips that I can use next time I am out on the course. When I had completed my interaction with the advertisement, I continued down the page to read the rest of the article.
The ad did not get in the way, it did not distract from the original content, and it did not detract from my experience. In fact, it did the exact opposite. I wanted to interact with the ad, and it became a critically important and positive part of my experience on the website. Relevant, engaging, dynamic, and complex advertisements can become content as elemental as the site media itself. There is no doubt that if done properly (adding true value to the consumer/user experience through engagement, choice, and interaction), advertising is content that can be as important a definition of the user experience as the core page media.
3 Ways to Guarantee You Will Underperform In Your Career
Employee underperformance wreaks havoc on company profits and devastates job satisfaction. It’s a destructive phenomenon that is largely unavoidable. While LCB prefers to provide actionable “DO” lists, it is important to outline the preventable “DON’T” behaviors that some individuals may not be able to identify in themselves.
You’ve seen it before. A colleague of yours is intelligent, creative, and capable; perhaps more so than his peers. Yet, in spite of his potential, he is stuck in a mid-level position and is dissatisfied with his job and career. So often, this state of career limbo carries on for years. Before he knows it, he’s looking at retirement with very few accomplishments of any significance and a laundry list of unattained and unrealized goals.This scenario is all too common, and can lead to an infectious negative attitude that spreads throughout the workplace.
Let’s explore three distinct, dangerous behaviors and attitudes that will result in underperformance, dissatisfaction, and thus, decreased organization performance.
1) Refuse Input and Advice from Peers
Regardless of your intellect and prestige of your degree on the wall, you don’t know everything. If you believe that accepting assistance from your colleagues, employees, and bosses is a sign of weakness and will show that you don’t belong in your position, you are making a very costly mistake. Your peers can provide a wealth of information from a lifetime of experiences, and rejecting this advice and input could deprive you of important information that you simply weren’t aware of. To top it off, you will come off as rude, insecure, and not a team player. You recognize and note the negative behavior of your peers, and your colleagues are no different. Don’t be surprised if this comes up during performance reviews for a promotion.
2) Assume Maintaining the Accepted Status Quo Will Yield Deserved Promotions
A significant portion of the workforce shares the mistaken belief that simply showing up to work and fulfilling your stated duties will earn you promotions and pay raises. While certain industries have incentive systems that reward seniority, a greater number of companies and industries are moving towards performance-based systems that reward innovation, creativity, and appropriate risk-taking. If you fail to adhere to the changing systems and expectations, you run the risk of being lapped by your colleagues and passed over for promotions by your superiors. LCB touched on this in an earlier post.
3) Reject Advice from Proven and Successful Leaders
Visionaries and successful leaders like Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, and Tony Robbins have seen it, lived it, and now look to share their success with you. Their goal is to empower you to be the greatest version of you that’s possible, and to allow you to take the steps in your life that can transform you into a successful, happy, and accomplished individual. Self-help “gurus” are a dime-a-dozen and often offer nothing more than what they read and heard from others. But true visionaries like those mentioned above can catapult you to the next stage of life and your career, allowing you to realize your true potential. If you reject their educated, experienced, and proven advice as common self-help trash, you are abandoning an opportunity to develop your professional and personal skills. Set your ego aside and learn from those who have proven they have the knowledge and abilities to succeed.
Too often individuals navigate their careers and allow professional goals and personal dreams to fall by the wayside as they fail to meet the expectations they set for themselves. Demotivation, a critical organizational behavior concept, has devastating effects on employee productivity and thus, company performance. This trap is often self-inflicted, and you can avoid falling into the cycle by stopping yourself when you notice you may be exhibiting the three aforementioned behaviors and attitudes.
What behaviors and attitudes have you seen derail the careers of your colleagues and peers? Did they correct their course? Tell your story with a comment below!
